Barcelona has been selected as the first European Capital of Innovation "for introducing the use of new technologies to bring the city closer to citizens. The new Capital of Innovation award looks at the outstanding achievements of cities building up an innovation ecosystem "ie a system which links the citizens (People) with a built environment (Place) and public organisations and policy makers (Public) and through business (Private). The award went to Barcelona for "introducing the use of new technologies to bring the city closer to citizens". Grenoble (France) and Groningen (Netherlands) were runners up to Barcelona.

The European Capital of Innovation has much in common with the PASCAL Entrepreneurial Learning Cities Network with the same interest in finding the best fit between technology and people. There may be lessons from these cities for PASCAL thinking on learning cities for the future.